Choosing Professional Writing Services
Your experience with a professional writing service will depend on three factors:
1. Your relationship with
the service’s professional writer.
2. The service’s business practices.
3. The level of communication
with the service.
Certainly, factors such as cost and turn-around time are also important. But these factors
are usually negotiable. How the professional writing service treats its clients and what it has to offer are not.
When choosing a professional writing service, ask yourself the following questions.
How well does the writer
meet my needs?
It is important to work with a writer who will be your partner in creating materials
that reach your target audience. Ideally, a professional writer should possess the following qualities:
1. Have an understanding of your needs
The writer should be able to relate to you as a person and understand your needs.
He should have the following attributes:
a. The ability to work with you in shaping your ideas into a precise message.
b. The intelligence
to understand your business and industry.
c. The skills to develop the written communication that will help you
achieve your goals.
2. Knowledge of target audience
To write effective materials, a business writer must have an understanding of your target audience. During your initial
consultation, a discussion about your target audience is important. After all, the whole point of writing the material
is to connect you with your audience.
3. Skill and experience
Writing ability is absolutely essential. Even if a writer does not have experience writing in your particular industry,
a good command of the English language coupled with strong research skills are important for writing any kind of content.
A writer’s lack of experience in your industry can be an asset. Since he can view it from a different
point of view, he may see things in a way that an industry insider cannot. This insight can help him be more objective
and creative.
On the other hand, a writer who has experience within your industry does not have as
much of a learning curve and will bring a certain kind of wisdom to the project.
4. Style of writing
The style used to write your material will, of course, depend on your target audience and their needs. A marketing
brochure for a business that sells to consumers will have a different tone than a brochure for a business that markets itself
to other businesses.
Therefore, it is important to understand what tone (or voice)
your target audience responds to best (i.e., formal, conversational, humorous, academic, or technical) and choose a writer
who can create that tone. One way to get an idea of a writer’s style is to review a diverse sampling of his work.
Does the service have good business practices?
The way that a professional writing
service conducts its operations is essential to developing a trusting relationship with its clients. It has to operate
with integrity and provide a means for you to hold it accountable for its dealings with you. Good business practices
include the following elements:
• A straight-forward contract
• A fair pricing policy
• A guarantee of privacy
• A clearly-defined process for completing projects
• A willingness
to talk with you about your project before asking for money
• A published address and phone number
Is the service responsive?
Clear and timely communication is another important
criterion for choosing a professional writing service. The growth of the Internet has increased businesses’ abilities
to work with writers who are not headquartered in their locations. This distance can give the impression that the writer-client
relationship is unstable or disconnected. Whether the service is local or remote, the following practices will help
you feel more comfortable working with it.
• Provides accurate information about what
it will take to complete your project
• Returns emails and phone calls in a timely fashion
• Works
to accommodate your schedule
• Provides thorough answers to your questions
• Gives you a justifiable
estimate of project costs
Of course, if you are working with a professional writing service in your area, the writer
should be willing to meet with you face-to-face when necessary.
Choose wisely to achieve
success
Since there are so many professional writing services to choose from, you should be able to find one that works best for you. By developing a list of criteria that are most
important to you, researching various services, and talking with candidates, you will improve your chances of finding a professional
writing service that will help you successfully reach your target audience and achieve your goals.